this.❗️acknowledging pain doesn’t make you weak❗️I understand the concerns of most healthy people but I’m sick of receiving messages asking me to stay strong. Just as being busy is glorified, so is being strong. What’s with people telling people to be strong all the time? I am strong and I am in unbearable pain. How about we get more comfortable speaking about pain and suffering rather than covering what’s uncomfortable by glorifying being strong? Real strength lies in being vulnerable and reaching out. Speaking about pain makes us stronger, on our own and together. Please, also, don’t ask me to preoccupy my mind with something else or distract myself from the pain. Maybe with a fracture or a sprain, sure. And for the sake of love, don’t ask me to smile through pain. It’s not possible with the kind of pain I’m talking about today. If you’ve been following me for a while, you would know my approach to dealing with this illness — I have a more holistic and soft approach to co-existing with pain and limitations of the illness. You’d know that I am always in pain, always sublaxing a joint or the other, managing some other symptoms out of the many and yet doing my best. Distraction of any sort hasn’t helped once in ten years of living with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. In fact, when I was in distraction mode and tried to push through, things got worse. What has helped is listening to pain; listening to the wisdom of my body. I so understand that everyone means well and I mostly don’t react to certain things people say because I see they’re trying to be nice. BUT, please, consider that there are times when people like me are experiencing excruciating pain which you simply won’t get unless you are chronically ill yourself. 💞If you don’t know what to say, try a more empathetic and compassionate approach — ask how someone’s doing, if they need any help, tell them it’s okay to take a break, tell them you’re proud of them for living with pain, tell them there is no way you can ever relate but you’re there for them. 💞 #unbearable #chronicillness #invisibleillness #pain #chronicpain #ehlersdanlossyndrome #hypermobility #dislocations #sublaxations #flareup #lowerback #spine #slippeddisc #tailbone #inflammation #patience #chronicpainawareness